“The Flame?” questioned Cho.
“The white Flame,” repeated Ray, once more slipping into that odd state of detachment.
“The undying Flame,” Cho said. “But that-that is not of man, for man to look upon! Truly the shield of the motherland was raised above you on this day!”
“Once that Flame burned in the sanctuary of the altar in this city.” Uranos spoke then.
“But never will it so again,” answered Cho.
“What do you mean?” asked the Atlantean prince. moon shot is your simple gamble-a schoolroom exer-cise compared to this,” Burton retorted. –
“When do you make the first try?” General Colfax spoke for the first time.
“In exactly fourteen hours, five minutes. Then we open the gate and hold it for an hour. Dr. Burton activates the seeker according to the equation-”
“And then-we just wait.” The general spoke as if to himself.
“We wait,” echoed Fordham.
“And maybe,” added Hargreaves, “we just go on waiting-forever.”
RAY struggled up on one arm to look out into the main hall of the ruined temple. Part of the roof was open to the night sky, and light rods were set in the old brackets to illuminate the stone blocks now serving Murian war captains as tables and seats.
“How is it with you?”
The American looked over his shoulder at an approaching Naacal.
“Better-”
The priest smiled. “So you’re weary of our tending r and would be up and about? Well-” His fingers touched Ray’s wrist and hunted for his pulse. “Perhaps if I do not suffer such folly, you will be out on your own anyway.” He clapped his hands, and a man wearing the shorter white tunic of a temple servant brought clothing.
With help Ray slipped a soft leather tunic over the bandages that wrapped him mummy-wise from armpit to waist. Over that went a kilt reinforced with metal strips, but no breast plate. The priest waved that aside.
“You will not need it, and the weight is too much for your wounds.”
“Cho-?” asked Ray.
“At present he is on duty at the western gate.”
“And the city?” _
“It has surrendered, save for the inner keep of the palace. When most of the guard discovered Chronos taken, they threw down their arms. Those who still fight are the Red Robes of Ba-A1 and such others as have good reason to believe they deserve no mercy at our hands.”
“Ray!” Cho came swiftly across the hall. He stopped a short distance off to survey the American from head to foot. “Good-warrior ready. But you have no sword. This perhaps-I took it but a short time ago from the captain of the gate-” He had in his hands a belt and sheathed sword, the hilt of which gleamed red with a pattern of rubies.
“Now-that is better. You must be ready-”
“For what? The Naacal said most of the fighting was over.”
“Not for battle, no. But the Re Mu enters the city at dawn. All but the inner part of the palace is now ours.”
“And Chronos?”
“Swords from the private guard at the Great One hold him safe. The -Re Mu wishes to see you.”
And I, thought Ray, wish to see him. There are questions-but whether he would ever get a chance to ask them, that he did not know. That sense of unreality had closed about him again. He watched and listened, but he was not a part of all this. And now no touching of the armlet reunited him with this world in which he stood, like a spectator at a vivid pageant.
He was with Cho as the Re Mu entered the Five Walled City. He saw the white war chariot of the Sun drawn by snorting stallions crunch over the debris of battle. And he even copied Cho’s war salute to the Emperor and went forward with the Murian when that ruler beckoned to them.
“I see you, my lords-” The Re Mu gave the formal greeting as Ray again followed Cho’s lead and touched knee to the dust of the roadway.
Cho bowed his head to give the conventional answer: “We are yours, Great One, with all loyalty and strength.”
But Ray looked up into those remote blue eyes. If the Re Mu read his thoughts here and now, he knew that Ray did not echo that and that his outward show of homage was only that-show.
“Never, I think, has the Sun been so ably served, my lords-” returned the Emperor. “Come to me within the hour-”
“We hear and obey,” Cho agreed, and they got to their feet as the chariot rumbled on.
Hear and obey, yes; he had heard and would obey-in this much, but not by choice. And he would have
answers-Trailing Cho, the American followed the royal procession into the heart of the city. Townspeople were being herded along by Murian troops, also converging on the center of their half-destroyed capital.
Though the soldiers tried to keep some sort of order and clear lanes through the throng, the ways were choked. Cho appealed to a harassed officer.
“We are summoned by the Great One. How may we-?”
The officer threw up his hands. “Not this way, Sunborn. Take to the lesser streets, even to the roofs, but you will make no haste-”
Cho took his advice, bringing them into a side way and finally weaving an in-and-out route to reach the temple once more.
“Where is Uranos?” Ray asked as they came at last to their goal. He was panting with effort and had to lean against a wall.
“I do not know. He went to the Re Mu last night. If he is as he claims-” But Cho broke off, for they were now a part of a crowd of officers and men drawn up behind a hastily arranged throne. Blocks from the fane had been set together and draped with brilliant war cloaks. There the Re Mu had taken his seat to judge the city. About him was a glittering mass of polished and bejeweled armor, with here and there the plain white robe of a Naacal for contrast, while at the Emperor’s right, on a lower block seat, the Naacal U-Cha leaned forward a little as if he were so shortsighted he had difficulty in making out with clarity the scene before him.
As Cho and Ray mingled with the warriors, there was a sharp and demanding roll of war drums, four. of them together, standing waist-high to the drummers on the steps. And as that died away, so did .the surf like murmur of the throng.
The Re Mu’s face was expressionless, yet in some strange way it was as if he saw not just the multitude of people gathered there but each and every man or woman in it as an individual whom he was to judge. Ray watched people in the nearer ranks drop their heads, look to left or right, but in the end they once more raised their eyes as if commanded to do so by a power they could not disobey.
Then the Emperor’s hand lifted but an inch or two from the clasp it held, fingers locked upon the hilt of a bared sword that stood upright between his knees, and pointed to the cracked and stained stone under his feet. At that slightest of gestures, one of the warriors moved out a pace or so to his left. Under the edge of that man’s helm Ray saw a face that he knew. It was Uranos.
“People of Atlantis-” The Re Mu’s voice rang with the same compelling note as the drums. “Dwellers under the cloak of the Shadow-”
A ripple crossed the crowded square. They were falling to their knees, holding up their hands, some in swift abasement, others more reluctantly.
“Forgive-” A kind of sobbing wail, which grew stronger, followed that ripple.
“Some things go beyond the bounds of forgiveness. Look you, choosers of the Dark, upon the stains that stand upon these walls, think you how they came to bear such red testimony against you.” The Emperor’s sword swung up, and the rising sun caught fire along its blade, making it flame. It pointed to the walls where the Sunborn had had their ending.
“We did as those over us commanded, Great One. Forgive!”
“And I say unto you, men of heart would have risen and put down any who gave such commands. It becomes no man in a day of judgment to hide behind an order that was evil, saying, `I did as I was commanded.’ In each man at birth is placed the knowledge of good and evil, and each day, each hour, is he allowed choices of both. If he chooses ill out of fear or weakness or lust or greed or rage, still he has had a choice, and by that choice he shall be judged when the final day comes. When your forefathers came to this land, they were given two treasures, that they might look upon them and remember the right-” Again his sword flashed